Television can be a bad, bad thing ...

... and so can books. Especially when you think you have a reno all figured out, and then low and behold you pick up a book and the ideas start to shift. Case and point, the beautiful bathroom above with it's antique reproduction console sink. This piece of lovely graces the pages of one of my favorite design reference books, The Home Book - HouseBeautiful. What caught my eye in this photo in particular, and why it referenced my reno so perfectly were the water lines for the sink coming up out of the floor. Go ahead, scroll back up and look.

See them? Well, mine are like that too. Originally Scott and I had talked to the contractor about moving the plumbing from the floor to the wall, but when I saw this picture I thought perhaps just a switch in the fixture would be easier, and perhaps - even less expensive? My search for lanterns went on back burner and my search for console sinks ensued.

Then, thinking that I had it all figured out with just the sink to tinker with - I went back to watch my tivo'ed Candice Olson to find her genius approach to covering panelling in this episode where she not only painted over the ugly paneling below:

Oooo, that carpet too! Eeek! But of course, Candice and her team, her amazing eye, wisdom, and budget came up with a lot of wow and drama in the space. She used wood battens to cover the grooves in the existing paneling and formed a geometric grid pattern on the wall while doing it:

The overall look, stunning. It also saved her client a pocket full of money, since they didn't have to rip the old stuff out. That got me thinking, perhaps that's how I could tackle the strange 1920's pressed concrete below the chair rail in my bathroom. Tearing it out is not only cumbersome, and frankly dangerous - but drywalling the area isn't going to be cheap. Can I fake it like Candice with some simple 1x1?